In their rise to the exclusive tier of the NBA’s best teams, the Golden State Warriors have feasted on most of their opponents, with specific disdain shown to their elite brethren over the last few years. Some specific teams, however, seem to give the Warriors more trouble than others, and one of the characteristics those teams seem to share is length and athleticism. The Milwaukee Bucks possess both those attributes in great abundance, and gave the Warriors about all they could handle before eventually succumbing to the Dubs by a final score of 124-121. In a intense physical matchup that was mostly an offensive showcase, it was ironically a defensive play that determined the outcome of the game, and it stands to reason that Draymond Green, the premier stopper on the Warriors and the heart and soul of the defense, was right in the thick of it.

Aristotle observed that “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” For the Golden State Warriors on Friday night, they rediscovered a part of themselves that had gone missing since last season: their game-changing defense. Ranked #22 in the NBA in defensive efficiency entering their contest against the Celtics in Boston, the Warriors played their most effective and sustained defense of the season. The Warriors kept the Celtics under double digits in the third quarter allowing just 9 points. In that quarter, the Warriors recaptured their old trademark of capitalizing on length and switching to generate turnovers, resulting in an onslaught of fast break points that broke the game open. After the game, Klay Thompson emphasized to the importance of their defensive execution, saying, “We can outscore anyone, but we have to build great habits now. Come May or June we got to be moving on a string on defense. The offense will always be there for us, but it’s that side of the ball that’s going to make all the difference come post season time.” Continue Reading →

Legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks, when interviewing to be the head coach of the US Olympic Men’s Hockey team for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, reportedly told the higher-ups who ran the USOC that their humiliating losses to the Soviet Union in previous years weren’t due to a lack of talent; rather, he postulated, “All-Star” teams, assembled based on name recognition and individual talent, rarely possess the balance, camaraderie, and teamwork required to go from a group of individuals to a team, where the whole ends up being greater than the sum of the parts.

Followers of the Fast Break blog have constantly wondered (with significant giddiness) what would happen on a night when all of the Splash Triplets started scoring points at will. This evening, those who elected to watch the Golden State Warriors over Sunday Night Football got to witness some offensive fireworks, as the Warriors outgunned the feisty but ultimately overmatched Phoenix Suns 133-120. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green were masterful in their respective ways, with some knock-down three-point shooting, a handful of rim-shattering dunks, seven (!?) blocks that had to be seen to be believed, and necessary emotional fire on a home game that started quite a bit earlier than the Dubs are used to. Despite the entertainment value provided by the game, there remain some lingering issues with this squad that shouldn’t raise any immediate alarm bells but must be kept in mind as this team continues to evolve.

In Federalist Paper #10, Publius, the pen name for the chief architect our Constitution, James Madison, addresses the concern of factions in a society. “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction…By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” In this, the most famous edition of the Federalist Papers, Madison goes on to explicate his argument that a republic, not a pure democracy, is the most practical form of government needed to ensure the rights off all against the tyranny of factions. For the Golden State Warriors, one of the essential themes heading into the season was chemistry: How would the new parts all fit together and would each of the star players on the team rise above the natural selfish tendencies that are, as Steve Kerr mentioned last night in his postgame interview, ingrained in our own human nature? Would personal agendas create fissures of factions that would harm team chemistry? Last night’s game against the Denver Nuggets may have helped the Warriors answer that question. In a game where the outcome was never in question, the Warriors not only comfortably dominated the Denver Nuggets on their home court on the back end of a back-to-back, but they came together and demonstrated through their success–and in the case of Kevin Durant his failure to add to his streak of 20 point games—a strong foundation built upon unselfish unity and cohesion. Continue Reading →

In 1831, the French government sent Alexis de Tocqueville to the United States for a year to study its prison system. When Tocqueville returned home, he quickly submitted his report and turned his focus towards something far more ambitious — a study of why America’s democracy survived when other attempts failed. For Tocqueville, America was set apart by its foundational and aspirational devotion to equality. But he also recognized that the same trait could be its undoing. Paradoxically, as individuals found their conditions improving, they often expressed more frustration over their perceived inability to keep pace with others. Tocqueville worried that the same individualism that distinguished America might generate resentment that would tear it apart. To this day, America struggles with the precarious balance Tocqueville described. But at least for Steve Kerr’s Warriors, democracy is working.

Thomas Jefferson once said “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” On Monday night, Stephen Curry made history, breaking the NBA’s record for the three-pointers in a game. While watching the record fall was fun — it was always question of when, not if, Curry would break it — the performance was made all the more tantalizing by a few more subtle developments in the Warriors’ team offense. Curry’s explosion against the Pelicans was a product of his own unmatched brilliance, but also his team’s progress towards the fluid and cohesive offense Steve Kerr sees in his dreams.

Nearly two years ago to the day–November 1, 2014–the Golden State Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Lakers by 23 points in an early season match-up that established in Kobe Bryant’s mind the potency of the Warriors. “You can’t blink against this team,” said Kobe after the game. “They have quick triggers and a lot of guns. It’s like you blink, and they bust the game wide open.” Kobe saw something that others didn’t, and his comments proved to be prescient as the Warriors would go on to win the NBA Championship that season. Last night, the Warriors came into Staples even more offensively potent than they were two seasons ago, having retained all of the offensive weapons in their arsenal while adding two-time MVP Kevin Durant to their stockpile. But in spite of all that firepower, the Lakers, who didn’t even play an entire 48 minutes of “eyes wide open” basketball, still crafted a 20 point blowout against a Warriors team that looked lost in space last night, a team searching for its bearings on defense and wondering where its most reliable weapon—the three point shot—has gone. Continue Reading →

In a wildly anticipated matchup between Kevin Durant’s new team and his old one, the Golden State Warriors (his new team, for those who have been living under a rock for the last few months) trounced the Oklahoma City Thunder (his old team) by a final score of 122-96. And Kevin Durant, the man at the center of immense scrutiny and under the proverbial microscope after his decision to leave Oklahoma City for the Bay Area, was at the very epicenter of the offensive and defensive explosions at Oracle Arena, notching a hyper-efficient 39 points on 24 shots, to go along with 7 rebounds in a dazzling 31 minutes of play. Continue Reading →

“Good things usually happen,” Steph said postgame, “if you have pure intentions about how everyone’s going to get involved.”

There was marked improvement in virtually every element of the W’s game in last night’s road-win in Portland. (I don’t even remotely worry about a Klay shooting-funk. He has one or two of these each year—and then dispels them.)

In fact, that’s the good news. When Steph has 5 at halftime, Durant has his quietest scoring night of the young season, and Klay’s mumbling to himself after each missed quick-shot 3…and the W’s still win big?